I am a very enthusiastic and proactive person, constantly curious about the world. I love travelling and meeting new people, explore new cultures and places. My favourite sport is climbing, outdoors or indoors, with my friends or alone, depending on the mood. I also love creative activities such as drawing and sculpting, and music (playing the guitar mostly). Throughout my career I specialized in tissue engineering specifically in biomaterial development and additive manufacturing. I started working in the GIOTTO project as a post-doc at POLITO, on the development of device 2, but recently, as I moved to Newcastle (UNEW) I also contributed towards the optimization of device 1.

My work in GIOTTO focused on the electrospinning of collagen, alone or containing inorganic phases (MBGs and HA). Together with the team, we successfully optimized the formulations for electrospinning of these systems and their crosslinking strategy, which was allied to the functionalization with ICOS-Fc. In fact, the membranes produced were able to decrease the migration of ICOS-positive cells, which was the main goal of ICOS-Fc. Coming back to Newcastle, I remained involved in the project by supporting the work on device 1, specifically the production and functionalization of plates for in vivo testing.

It did, in fact, it was within the GIOTTO project that I learned about electrospinning which now became an essential part of my research. I also acquired a very good network which I keep up to this date in collaborations overseas, whether it being research projects or teaching activities.